Solar Roadways light up the future

Artist's rendering of an interstate made with solar roadways. (Sam Cornett)

Robert Duffer, Chicago Tribune

What if a road could be an energy source? What if snowplowing was no longer necessary? What if a petroleum-based economy could shift to a renewable-energy economy?

These are not just the seeds of science fiction but the foundation of an invention that could alter reality.

Solar Roadways is a modular paving system loaded with solar cells and LED lighting that could replace asphalt-based surfaceways and produce an estimated three times as much energy as is used in the United States.

“A solar roadway is a decentralized power grid, which can become the backbone of the new smart grid,” says Scott Brusaw in a video on Solarroadways.com. Brusaw, an electrical engineer based in Sandpoint, Idaho, and his wife Julie have invented a prototype to test solar roadways in everyday use

The modular paving system is made of thick glass panels housing solar cells, microprocessors, heating elements, LED lighting and fiberoptics. Don’t confuse it with window pane glass—the panels have been tested to handle 250,000 pounds and conceptually based on the indestructibility of black boxes that are recovered from airplane accidents.

Not only can business or residences that use solar roadways sell energy back to the grid in a smart grid society, but the heating elements within the panels can melt snow. Yes, no snow shoveling or plowing. And the LED lights can be programmed for traffic lines, construction detours, warning sensors--any type of road indicator, so if a pedestrian was crossing a crosswalk, it could light up; if there an accident up ahead, the road could tell you; if you had to refigure a parking lot for a big event, you could reprogram the lines. And they could provide light at night. In the first phase of testing, Brusaw found that low beam headlights aimed at the solar roadway at night could generate energy in the solar cells.

In addition to that, it can pay for itself by producing three times more energy than we use as a country?

Most moon shots are hard to believe.

“In the very beginning, half the people thought we were geniuses,” Brusaw says in a Focus/Forward short film by Michele Ohayan. “The other half thought we were off our rocker.”

Brusaw’s real world solar collection calculations were funded in part by a 2009 Federal Highway Administration grant. Figuring conservatively, the Brusaws based the estimate on four hours of peak sunlight in Idaho during winter. Since roadways can’t--or shouldn’t--be angled at the sun to optimize efficiency like you do with solar panels, the Brusaws laid them at a flat angle. The estimate is based on nationwide adoption and replacement of over 31,000 square miles of impervious surfaces, ranging from bike paths to interstates.

But for right now, it’s just a parking lot.

Even though that’s how paradise was paved, according to Joni Mitchell, the Brusaws, who met as toddlers in the 60s, see Solar Roadways as a way to put the ecologic into the economic.

“What better way of rebuilding the word economy than making something that would also help the environment,” Brusaw says in the Ohayan film.

But at what cost?

For now, the assessment will be addressed after seasonal prototype testing, which is expected to be completed by July 2014 “for the final report of our contract,” Brusaw writes.

There’s no doubt the cost will be big. But it be dwarfed by the benefits, Brusaw expects.

“It would take 5 billion 12 foot by 12 foot panels to cover the roads in the U.S.,” the engineer from Sandpoint, Idaho says. “That’s a lot of manufacturing, that’s a lot of jobs.”

Replacing the modular panels would be easier than comprehensive repaving projects.

So far the idea has generated a lot of support. Perhaps more significant than a $750,000 Federal Administration Grant is the response from private donors: Solar Roadways has raised over $1.7 million from Earth Day to May 31 on crowdfunding site indiegogo, which is a record for the site.

It’s one small step for solar roadways, and might become another historic leap.